Island



(No Model.)

.G.'AMBOR-N,Jr.

3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

-WAX THREAD SEWING MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 15, 1890.

(No Mbdel.)

G. AMBORN, Jr. WAX THREAD SEWING MACHINE.

Nd. 425,722. Patented Apr. 15, 1890.

3 Sheets-Sh'eet 2/ r (No Modem 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

. G AMBORN, Jr

WAX THREAD SEWING MACHINE.

No. 425,722. Patented Apr. 15, 1890.

' UNITED STATES To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE AMBORN,J1., of Pawtucket, in the county ofProvidence and State of Rhode Island, haveinvented cer- 5 tain new anduseful Improvements in WVaX- Thread Sewing-Machines; and I do herebydeclare that the following specification, taken in connection with thedrawings furnished and forming a part of the same, is a clear, true, andcomplete description of my invention.

My said improvements relate to that variety of wax-threadsewing-machines in which two vibrating arms co-operate for deliveringthe I thread to a hook-needle, one of said arms having a thread-eye andthe other a controllingarm vibrating in a plane below the eye for aidingin drawing down thread and presenting it to the hook of the needle, andthen in gradually releasing the thread as the needle retires into theleather which is being stitched.

thread-eye arm known to me has a flattened round end, in which thethread-eye is located, and under all circumstances the thread lies belowthe arm and eye in its path to the needle, whether said path be director by way of the co-operating controlling-arm. WVith this form ofeye'arm the rounded portion at 0 the end beyond the eye, when inoperation on certain kinds of work, frequently strikes and defacesadjacent leather surfacesas, for instance, the uppers of shoes mountedon lasts while stitching uppers to soles.- An- 3 5 other variety of eye-arm has a finger,and is, in fact, a forked arm, and in this form theeye portion of the arm is flattened, and the thread, as with the earlierform of arm, passes always wholly below the arm at the eye, and when 0the threadis presented to the hook of the needle its path lies beneaththe eye, thence over the delicate projecting tip of the finger, thencearound the thread-controlling arm, and thence to the last-formed stitchin the leather, and the hook of the needle engages with that portion ofthe thread which is carried by the eyearm between-its eye and itsfinger; but the tip of the finger is quite liable to override thethread, resulting in failure of delivery to the needle. The said forkedthread-arms involve great nicety in construction, are compara- Theearliest and most common form of PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE AMBORN, JR, OF PAlVTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE CAMPBELLMACHINE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

WAX-THREAD SEWING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 425,722, dated April15, 1890. Application filed December 7, 1889. Serial No. 332,934. (Nomodel.)

tively expensive, and more or less liable to breakage or injury at thesmall tip of the finger, and in setting them in a machine for servicemuch care and skill are required, and although such forked arms havemuch great-er practical value than the preceding simple eye-arms, theyare liable to occasional failure in the performance of their duties.

I have now devised a thread-eye arm which is nearly as simple inconstruction and nearly as inexpensive as the original plain eye-arm,and it is free from the liabilities of injury and breakage incident tothe forked arms, and one which can be set with less skill and 6 5greater facility and also operated with a 1ninimum liability of failurein service.

My said novel thread-eye arm differs from all others known to me, inthat it has at its end directly beyond the eye a thread seat or face,across which the thread is carried laterally by the thread-controllingarm, and therefore said eye-arm is one which during its presentation ofthread to a hook-needle is wholly at the rear or one side of thatportion or bight of thread which extends from the thread-arm eye to thethread-controlling arm.

The ordinary eye-arm as well as the forked arm referred to have bothbeen heretofore employed upon the well-known Campbell wax-threadlock-stitch machine, the ordinary arm having been shown in the UnitedStates Letters Patent to Campbell, No. 253,156, January 31, 1882, and aforked arm is illustrated in United States Letters Patent No. 388,752,issued to me August 28, 1888, to which reference may be had, if need be,for a comparison thereof with my present improvements, which have beenspecially devised for use upon Campbell machines, although applicable tomany other kinds of wax-thread machines.

To more particularly describe my invention I will refer to theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 illustrates a Campbellwax-thread 5 lock-stitch or shuttle machine with my improvements appliedthereto, it being understood that the hook-needle in said machine isaxially reciprocated, as disclosed in my aforesaid Letters Patent, No.388,7 52. Fig. 2 illustrates in side View that portion of the machine inwhich the thread-eye arm is located,

my improved eye-arm being shown applied thereto. Fig. 3 illustrates inplan view the bracket on which the eye-arm carrier is supported andoperated. Fig. 4 illustrates my improved thread-eye arm in its preferredform in side view, and on a scale very much larger than the arm is evermade for actual use, in order to better illustrate its peculiarconstruction. Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate the same respectively in edge andend view, the latter figure showing the flattened head of the arm in theinclined position occupied by it when the arm is mounted in its carrier.

. Fig. 7 illustrates the arm in end View with thread passing through theeye in a straight but slightly inclined line, as during the tight eningof a stitch. Fig. 8 is a similar view of said arm with the threadpassing through the eye, and thence horizontally across the end of thearm, as when the thread is under the control of the vibratingthread-controlling arm. Fig. 9 illustrates in side elevation (and on asmaller scale) the thread-eye arm and the thread-controlli1 1g arm inposition as when delivering thread to the hook of the needle. Fig. 10illustrates the same parts in plan view and in position as when threadis being delivered to the hook of the needle. Fig. 11 illustrates thetwo arms in position after the needle has carried down the thread andjust after the latterhas been released by the controlling-arm. Fig. 12illustrates the two arms in position just before the next rise of theneedle, the thread-eye arm being then in its most rearward position.Fig. 13 illustrates said arms as when the needle is ascending, thethread-controlling arm having been swung around for picking up thethread and the thread-eye arm being just ready to advance and resume theposition shown in Fig. 6, with the thread in the seat across theend ofthe eye-arm. Figs. 14, 15, and 16 illustrate my novel thread-arm in amodified form, respectively in top, side, and bottom views, the samebeing shown much larger than the arm is ever made. Figs. 17 and 18illustrate said arm in end View, one figure showing thread passing in aright line through the eye, as during the tightening of a stitch, the

other showing the thread carried laterally across the thread-face, aswhen about to be delivered to the hook of a needle.

As hereinbefore indicated, this hook-needle A is one which, as in myaforesaid prior patout, is axially reciprocated, as well as having theusual longitudinal movements, and while my present improvements havespecial Value in connection with an axially-reciprocating hook-needlethey may be profitably employed with needles which are only reciprocatedlongitudinally.

The thread-controlling arm B has and needs,

as heretofore, only a swinging movement, so that its tip will describethe arc of a circle. (Illustrated in Figs. 11 to 13, inclusive.)

The thread-eye arm 0 is reciprocated, as

or oval eye 0, which has its longest diameter crosswise of the flattenedhead. The outer end of this arm is substantially vertical, but slightlyconeaved, as at c, and this end surface constitutes athread-face or athread-seat, which is directly beyond the eye and closely adjacentthereto. for service in its carrier (1, upon the pendent stem orspindle, the flattened headis set angularly, or, in other words, theflat end is in-' elined slightly from avertical line, the lower corneror edge being slightly nearer the needle (when delivering threadthereto) than the upper corner or edge, so that when the eye-arm movesbackwardly and the controlling-arm B engages with the thread and carriesit laterally the portion of'thread immediately below the eye will easilyslip upward over or around the lower corner and occupy the thread faceor seat 0, as illustrated in Fig. 8; but when free from the controlling-arm and under strain, as during the tightening of the stitch, thethread occupies a straight line in its passage through the eye, as shownin Fig. 7, the eye being oval or elongated inform, simply because theflat head of the arm is inclined to the path. of the thread, althoughthe outer straight side of the eye somewhat facilitates the slipping ofthe thread over the lower corner of the arm. The carrier aisreciprocatcd by means of the link d and slide 6, the latter being, asusual, actuated through the rod 6 by a suitable cam in thehead of themachine. Now, referring to Figs. 9 and 10, it will be understood that fdenotes the bight of thread presented to the hook of the needle A, andthat the thread end f leads from the source of supply, and also that thethread end f extends from the last-made stitch in the fabric to thecontrolling-arm 13, between which and the thread-seat c at the outer endof the thread-eye arm 0 the bight of thread f is tightly drawn forpresentation to the hook of the needle. In this machine the partialrotation of the needle enables its hook to receive the thread with aminimum advance of the thread-eye arm; but if the needle, as in somemachines, has no axial movement, so as to turn the hook toward theeye-arm, the latter needs only to be proportionately farther advanced.This Fig. 10 clearly illustrates the presence of the thread beyond theeye of the arm 0, and it will be seen that the end of this arm cannotpossibly strike the surface of a shoe-upper during the operation ofsole- When this armis mounted.

stitching, because the thread will be alwaysinterposed between the endof the arm and the upper.

In Fig. 11 the thread-controlling arm B is shown after it has been swungaround to release the thread during the descent of the needle, theeye-arm 0 still occupying theposition as in Fig. 10, where it remainsduring the taking up of the thread for tightening a stitch, as after thepassage of the shuttle.

In Fig. 12 the thread-controlling arm B is shown to be still occupyingthe position shown in Fig. 11; but the eye-arm G has been car'- riedrearward and sidewise, (see slot a of Fig. 3,) so that when thecontrolling-arm B is next swung, as shown in Fig. 13, it will pick upthe thread below the eye-arm and then resume the position shown in Fig.10, the eyearm 0 being then ready to be moved forward and laterally intothe position shown in Fig. 10, and it will be seen that during itsforward movement the eye-arm pushes the thread toward the needle, and isalways wholly at the rear of the thread, which passes across thethread-seat 0 directly in front of the eye, and the hook of the needlehas presented to it a portion of thread, which extends in a straightline from the outer end of the eye-arm to the controlling-arm. With aneye-arm of the ordinary form the thread would lie closely against therear side of the eye and the outer end of the arm would project farbeyond the thread, and with a forked eye-arm the finger of the fork hasfirst to pick up the thread between the eye and the controlling-armduring the forward movement of the thread-eye arm, and when it reachesits most forward position the sharp tip of said finger projects beyondthe thread toward, and is sometimes liable to engage with and deface,the upper of a shoe, and so, also, with the forked arms the portion ofthe arm which is directly beyond the eye is wholly in advance of thethread, and this portion is also liable to strike and deface ashoe-upper.

My eye thread-arm may be somewhat varied in its form without departurefrom my inventionas, for instance, as shown in Figs. 14 to 18,inclusive. The eye-arm 0' here shown has a thread-eye c which is roundinstead of oval, because this arm at its head is flat on top and is cutaway on its under side, so that the thread can pass downward through theeye, as in the ordinary form of eye threadarm. At the one side of theeye there is beneath the head a depending flange c and at the outer endof the head or arm the concave thread-face c is as before described. Itwill be readily seen that the thread during the tightening of a stitchwill stand free'in the eye, as shown in Fig. 17, and that when thethread below the eye is engaged by a controlling-arm the latter willcarry that portion of the thread into a horizontal position and cause itto slip upward and take aturn across and to occupy the thread seat orface 0 at the end of the arm, as is clearly shown in Fig. 18. I

The best results will accrue from the use .of my eye thread-arm with anaxially-reciprocated needle, because then the eye-arm can perform itsfull duty with a minimum of forward movement and a consequent minimumliability of its end to cross the stitch-line; but said thread-arm withits thread-seat at its outer end beyond its eye is far more desirableand effective than eye-arms of the ordinary form when used with needleswhich have no axial movement, because with my eye-arm the thread isalways interposed between its outer end and a shoe-upper, and hence thearm need never strike against an upper.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- 1. In a wax-thread sewing-machine, the

combination of a hook-needle, a vibrating thread-controlling arm and athread-eye arm provided at its outer end beyond its eye with a threadseat or face, substantially as described, whereby the controlling arm,in engaging with the thread below the eye-arm, causes a portion of thethread to lie laterally across the end of said arm beyond its eye and tooccupy said thread-seat during the presentation of thread to the hook ofthe needle.

2. In a wax-thread machine, the combination of a hook-needle which isaxially and longitudinally reciprocated, a vibrating threadcontrollingarm, and a thread-eye arm which has at its outer end and directly beyondits eye a thread seat or face, substantially as described, whereby thehook of the needle is turned toward the two arms and thread deliveredthereto in a straight line extending from the outer end of the eye-armto the controlling-arm.

3. The combination, with a hook-needle, of a thread-delivering armhaving an eye for the passage of thread to the needle, and also having athread-seat at and across its outer end, directly beyond its eye,substantially as described, whereby when the thread below the eye isdrawn taut laterally and in one direction it will slip to and occupysaid seat across the end of the arm during the delivery of thread to theneedle.

GEORGE AMBORN, JR. [L. s.] WVitnesses:

MILLARD F. MUNRoE, WILLIAM 0. WEST.

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